AKADEMIK KARPINSKY 2011

AKADEMIK KARPINSKY 2011

This trip had got stuck in my head for a long time. I always to talk the Governor of Litorala into going into the sea for a few days.

This time we managed to organize the boat, the group and the weather. Finally, we set off on 26 June on Sunday evening from Gdynia with plans for few deep dives at new positions. The Governor did not look to happy, because he had 4 days without normal sleep and the mess on the boat ahead of him.

but we were full of eagerness and enthusiasm to persuade him

New items as usual are far away, deep and uncertain – this was the case also this time but fortune seemed to be on our side, because already on the first day 4 inspected positions revealed 3 new wrecks. On the deck there were 3 groups of divers; we assumed that each position will be visited by only one group, and at the end we all could dive for the second time at the most interesting wreck.

To begin with, we went with Dima to the depth of 70 m. At the bottom we saw a small cutter, probably from the war days, but it was so covered in nets that we couldn’t find out much about it.

at the bottom lay an old shoe, and copper milk container, but these were probably misleading clues

Finally, after 30 min we started to go up, convinced, that it was an interesting discovery

It turned out that we still had a few more attractions to see on that day.

The next wreck lay at 75 m, this time Wnorek and Trojan dived. After 2 hours, as they came out, it turned out, that it was a wreck of a sailing ship – quite nice for one day but we had new positions to see and we went on according to plan.

The next wreck lay on 78 m and was outlined on the screen 10 -12 m above the bottom. This always jogs imagination. Marek Cacaj and Piotr Lalik went to the wreck. After they came out, their faces said it all. It turned out that at the bottom laid a beautiful wreck the size of Soldek in a perfect condition. We decided to dive there next morning and we mad one last dive on a well-known V315.

In the morning we all decided to dive at the new wreck.

After descending, we saw that the vessel was actually in a perfect condition and it had “everything”.

After going aroung the superstructure we went with Łukasz Piórewicz to the bow.passing, on the way, cargo bays and boatswain room at the bow.

And then we went to the stern, because a welded text could have been there. When we came there, it turned out that nothing was welded on.

We were about to come back, when I thought, that the text could have been only there and I started to go scrub the rust – and suddenly the white letters started to appear, after a moment Łukasz joined me but we realized that it would require much work.

Our friends were even more luck, because they encountered a bell. To be brief, we had many reasons to come back there. After leaving, we called CMM in Gdańsk and we told them about our findings.

We decided that the bell should stay at the wreck. We went to Wladysławowo, on the way diving at one position and then we had to recharge the cylinder, the batteries and, above all… take a shower 😉

In the morning, at 4:00 a.m. we set off into the sea.

We are all pretty tired and the boat is quite messy

We have the last day of trip ahead of us, and a specific goal – identify the wreck. Opportunities are significant, because the text might be on the bell and surely on the stern, but it needs to be cleaned.

We go down with Łuki and Marek to take a photo of the bell.

There is no inscription, so it go to the stern. The progress is slow, but after 10 minutes we start to see “something”.

Unfortunately, our cleaning creates a lot of sediment and we can’t see much. I take photos to read the inscription in peace on the surface, and we come back to the anchoring line.

At deco we have excellent clarity – For the first time in my life I feel a little bit afraid of heights, because the line can be seen for many metres, under us, it goes vertically and every few metres, we can see a group of unnaturally small people – at the 27th m I still see the lights of Dima and Sławek Packa, who are 40-50 m away from us.

After getting to the surface, we check photos and videos. It turns out very quickly that the inscription is in Russian and the name of the vessel is AKADEMIK KARPIŃSKI.

Before we reach the port, we already know that that it was built in Bremen in 1936 and launched under the name of THALIA, and it disappeared on the Baltic sea on 31 August 1953.

Carrying cereals from Kaliningrad to Amsterdam. Everything seems right, we come back to Gdynia, checking 6 more positions, but only in 2 cases, there was “something” there. But we can’t complain. It was great.